LondonExpo - May 26 & 27th '07

I still thought you were staying at the hotel near the BM . But the PTI Excel London Docklands is closer to the Prince Regent stop, the one after Custom House. Custom house leads straight onto Excel's entrance, but I could meet you outside your hotel at 10:30am-ish as it would probably be easier to spot each other that way.

 

Can do Matt

So far it just seems to be you and me, maybe Jamie. Not a peep from anyone else

 

i'll be there saturday.

 

A few others might show up during the day too. Should be a good day none the less

 

Aye, well I am off to work in the morning, then heading out from there. Will see you on Sat morning, about 10:30am

Thinking of going to the Sanctuary panel at 1pm.

 

i'll see you guys some time tomorrow.
looking forward to it.

 

I'm in town, and I'm checking to see what my costs will be to make it down and what panels I'll try and make it to if I decide to go.

 

I'm thinking that I might not be making it down, just do to expenses and what I have avaliable to me at the moment.

 

shame to those to missed out on this fine event.
aside from what the americans do with this sort of event,i don't think there's anyone else who can match the londonexpo organisers.
from sheer numbers in attendance to events and things to do,it is a really well put together event.
i look forward to the next show...
if you do go tomorrow,stop by the portent comics table near the entrance/exit to the main talks stage.

 

Probably the most bizarre filled show I've attended. Unlike Jamie here, I thought the organsiation and over-all set-up was terrible, but they managed to get through it all....just. The crew had to work very hard and were a nice bunch, but it was just a confussed mess for the most part. Christopher Lee's singing was.......well, it was in French and he is 85 after all, lol. The Sanctury screening was dire due to the lights not being turned off so you couldn't actual see anything, despite the MC saying to the panel guests 'sure, the lights will be turned off' which was a blatant lie.
I do agree this show pulls in a huge crowd, and their level of commitment and effort really can't be matched here in the UK, even by us Star Wars geeks. The show has always been geared towards the commericial side of things, which is all well and good but for me doesn't make for a good show.

At least it proved a good reconnaissance for CE. Me and Tim plan to publish our findings this coming week so stay tuned here and/or in the CE forum.

 

...I have my own opinions of the Expo organisers for other reasons that I wont bring in here.
It was good, I love the freebies, its what I live for lol, got some nice shirts & they had the new pokemon the second day santury screening was better, they sorted out some lights or something.

Full report in this months BBB [/plug]

 

Got back fine, and learnt a little more about London underground lol, and which routes are best for us non-Londoners who will be descending on your little home. Yeah Jamie, that means northerners/Scots/Welsh/Midlanders (amongst others) and the whole of Europe in your home. Better prepare

Afraid I am with Lord T on the London Expo Jamie. I don't like to put things down usually, but I was quite disappointed with it. Organisation-wise they had a lot of confusion - Matt and I can attest to that just on attending two (well nearly three with the Evil Dead women by mistake lol) talks. Christopher Lee's slot was at least an hour late, we had been shunted outside at the end of the previous talk, and got sent to the back of the queue. Not very nice since we had been waiting longer than the rest. Then when Lee's talked started ... well let's put it this way, it was an acquired taste anyways, but I think sound issues really killed his ("interesting") attempt at a musical career faster than any stake in a vampire. Then for his Q&A, I found him extrememly rude (old age forgiven) to the people asking questions. Then again, one person did ignore the "do not ask any questions other than about the music" when they asked him if he'd consider doing any more Hammer Horror. They were pretty much told to shut up by Lee. Not impressed.

I was interested in the Sanctuary talk, but that again was marred by poor sound, so you couldn't hear the guests much. And Matt has already described the technical mess up with the screening of Episode two of Sanctuary. Which still looks interesting, so I'll keep with it. But the queuing beforehand was a disaster again. We stood outside after leaving Lee's talk early, and no one informed us the queue had been moved completely outside the con hall (for health and safety reasons, I fully understand). Then when we got there the queue started facing away from the hall, but we only found that out after walking the length of it and being told by the front person. Madness lol.

For a professional show - they should have got all of this right beforehand tbh, because they only have two days, and I don't see why Saturday should be a test to get it all ironed out for Sunday.

Other problems - this was "London Expo" not "JapanEx" and though I know Manga/Anime is huge right now, it did seem to take over the whole place. Where were the other costumers? We saw three stormies (with KOTE emblems) and that was it tbh. Good to see they had a masquerade, that's a nice touch supporting the fans, and something Showmasters should consider at all shows (they did for G-Mex). But I think there should be some effort to get costumers of all sorts there - there were brilliant Aliens costumers at MK, not too far to travel that little bit extra. I mean I came from Southport (not Stockport Jamie, that's Manchester . Funny enough foreign students in Manchester Uni used to get confused where I meant too.)

Variety wise - there was a varied mix of stuff, but a lot of it seemed "half hearted" tbh, especially the film effort. I mean you have had two or so major films released in last few weeks (Pirates, Spiderman, etc) and nada on them at this con. They had a few nice props/displays (a truck from Day Watch, Silver Surfer from F4) for photo opportunities but not much else. But they could have milked SW and got more people coming - it's the 30th Anniversary for crying out loud!!!!! Didn't feel like there was any real idea what would be popular at the time of the con itself, more that Anime will do so let's have stuff to cover that. But then there is a whole con for that in a few months, so it felt a wasted opportunity for those not into anime.

I'd say right now that Showmasters and Expo are about equal in the pull factor - remember this is in London so you have more people to pull in. You can't compare numbers with Manchester (Collectormania G-Mex) because it has nowhere near as big an audience to pull without some travelling. And I found G-Mex to be fun - though that is from a participant side, not a visitor. I think I'd only do